The offshore market continues to ride a wave in week 33, 2022, with reports for floating rigs contracts significantly outpacing those for jack-ups
The most notable of these is Transocean’s Petrobras 1000 rig, which has just had its contract with Petrobras extended by another 5.5 years, into 2029.
Valaris’s DS-17 rig will embark on a 540-day contract offshore Brazil, for Equinor. The contract is worth US$327M and includes a US$86M upfront payment for mobilisation, reactivation and upgrades, at a day rate of over US$440,000/day, including managed pressure drilling services, ROV, casing running, slop treatment and cuttings handling.
Valaris’s DS-15 will also work offshore Brazil for TotalEnergies EP Brasil on continuation of existing contracts with optional extensions totalling an estimated 100 days of work.
Drilling contractor Aquadrill extended the charter hire for its Auriga floater with a subsidiary of Diamond Offshore Drilling after reaching an agreement on the one-year option in the current underlying drilling contract.
The contract is valued at US$150M and is set to commence March 2023 in direct continuation with the current drilling contract. Auriga will be provided a one-year drilling contract plus a one-year option for operations in the US Gulf of Mexico and the charter hire agreement will be extended if the parties agree to exercise the optional term.
Turning to the jack-up market, ADNOC announced a further US$1.2Bn contract for the hire of 13 self-propelled jack-up barges to drive offshore activity. ADNOC Offsore awarded the five-year contract to ADNOC Logistics & Services (L&S).
The 13 self-propelled jack-up barges are multi-purpose assets that enable rigless operations and maintenance with single point responsibility provided by ADNOC L&S. They will be deployed across ADNOC’s offshore fields and are equipped to support a wide scope of operations, including project work, maintenance and accommodation.
Earlier this month, ADNOC sanctioned two contracts totalling more than US$3.4Bn to ADNOC Drilling to hire eight jack-up offshore rigs. Both contracts will go towards supporting the Emirate’s goal of raising crude oil production to 5M barrels per day by 2030.
In the North Sea, TotalEnergies exercised an option to extend a contract for Maersk Drilling’s jack-up rig Maersk Interceptor by two months. Maersk Interceptor, an ultra-harsh environment CJ70 XLE jack-up, operates in the Danish North Sea. It is designed for year-round operations. The extension will commence November 2022, in direct continuation of the rig’s current contract. Two two-month options remain on the contract.
In engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) news, Saipem was awarded three new contracts (two offshore) by the Eni-led New Gas Consortium created for EPC activities related to the development of the Quiluma & Maboqueiro fields offshore Angola. The EPC contract is valued at US$900M. Saipem will handle the engineering, procurement and construction, including hook-up and commissioning assistance, of the Quiluma platform and the relevant onshore natural gas processing plant.
In other notable news, Aker BP and its partners submitted a plan for development and operation for the Trell & Trine discoveries to Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. The Trell & Trine development is planned with three wells and two new subsea installations to be tied back to existing infrastructure on East Kameleon and further on to the Alvheim FPSO. The Trell and Trine discoveries are located 24 km east of the FPSO. In addition, Aker BP reported an oil and gas discovery 14 km northeast of the Skarv field in the Norwegian Sea, 220 km west of Sandnessjøen, Norway.
Brazilian major Petrobras awarded Singapore’s Keppel Shipyard a US$2.9Bn contract for the construction of an FPSO, P-80, the ninth such unit to operate in the Búzios field. The new FPSO will be among the largest units to operate offshore Brazil, capable of producing 225,000 barrels of oil per day and a gas processing capacity of 12M m3 per day. P-80 is scheduled for completion H1 2026. Keppel is currently building the first Petrobras-ordered FPSO, P-78.
And finally, BP Azerbaijan reported the suspension of the Alpha platform at the Shah Deniz gas field on 14 August, for 14 days of maintenance work.
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